Gender at the Development Centre

The gender team's work at the OECD Development Centre highlights the central role of discriminatory social norms in perpetuating gender inequalities in non-OECD countries. Work includes looking at the underlying causes of gender inequality through the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) and engaging in a dialogue through the platform Wikigender. The team also produces research linking social norms with a range of development outcomes on a regular basis, and works in close co-operation with other OECD Directorates on gender equality and post-2015 issues.

58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women

On 13 March, we organised a side event jointly with ODI and DFID on "Tackling discroiminatory social norms to empower girls and women: lessons for a post-2015 framework". Read more!

Key dates in 2013:

December 2013

November 2013

New paper as part of the OECD and Post-2015 Reflection Series

Gender equality and women’s rights in the post-2015agenda: A foundation for sustainable development

The post-2015 framework presents a unique opportunity to build on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while also addressing the dimensions that lag behind. It is time to act now – to increase both the political will and the resources to achieve full and lasting gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s rights. This paper reiterates the call for a post-2015 framework that retains a strong, standalone goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and integrates gender-specific targets and indicators in the other goals.

Coming soon: a new Issues Paper looking at the linkages between female migration, social norms and migration. The main messages from the online discussion will also be included in the paper.

The 3 pillars of our gender work

The SIGI

The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is a new composite measure of gender equality, based on the OECD Development Centre’s Gender, Institutions and Development Database. Launched in March 2009, it complements and improves existing measures in several ways. While conventional indicators of gender equality capture inequality outcomes, the SIGI focuses on the root casus behind these inequalities. Learn more. See the new www.genderindex.org website!

Wikigender

Launched on 8 March 2008, www.wikigender.org reaches out to the public to foster a bottom-up dialogue on the importance of women's rights. It currently contains over 1, 200 articles maintained by more than 1, 200 users. Wikigender's sister site, www.wikiprogress.org, was launched in November 2009 to open the dialogue on the best measures to evaluate societal progress. Join the gender and progress communities to share and exchange information and best practices on gender equality and progress! More on Wikigender and Wikiprogress.

The Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base

The Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base is available since 2009. It represents a tool for researchers and policy makers to determine and analyse obstacles to women’s economic development. Its true innovation is the inclusion of institutional variables that range from intrahousehold behaviour to social norms. Learn more.